Americas

Tens of millions breathed an enormous sigh of relief upon hearing that
Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan wouldn’t be entering the White House. Union
members, women, African-Americans, Latinos and the LGBT community
correctly saw the Republican agenda as a vicious and real threat.

The right wing tried to steal the election with voter intimidation,
suppression and fake-populist posturing on the economy in the final
weeks, putting over one billion dollars in campaign cash into trying to
disenfranchise the poor, young people and people of color.

Obama’s vote was nothing like the excited and energetic campaign of
2008. This year, voter turnout was down by 12 million compared to four
years ago. Most people voted for Obama as a “lesser evil” rather than as
the savior they saw in 2008, who would bring “hope” and “change.”

Last year’s Occupy Wall Street movement made an impact on this election
by bringing a discussion about economic inequality between “the 99% and
the 1%” to the forefront. A brighter spotlight shone down on the record
$6 billion spent on federal races, to the outrage of millions. Occupy’s
message against corporate domination also fueled a healthy hatred for
Mr. 1% himself, Mitt Willard Romney.

Obama won this election in spite of his pro-corporate record. Banks
received trillions in handouts while social services were cut and
millions of families lost their homes. Many antiwar voters supported
Obama, despite continued bombing of civilians in country after country,
expanding Bush’s model of an unaccountable imperial Presidency, waging
war in Libya, and drone strikes around the world without discussion in
Congress.

Many of Obama’s voters were deeply disappointed in his performance over
the past four years, correctly seeing him as a puppet of Wall Street and
the 1%. The Obama administration begins its second term without any real
mandate. The Democratic Party “base” among the unions, people of color,
women and the LGBT community, swallowed their anger at Obama during the
elections, holding their nose to vote for the “lesser evil.” Now, with
the elections behind them, all the pent-up anger and frustration is set
to boil over.

Demands for jobs, clean energy investments, education funding, housing
rights, and solutions to an endless list of injustices will again come
to the surface. And again, Obama will put the interests of Wall Street
and big business first, provoking fresh outrage and opposition. The time
is ripe for building new movements of workers and oppressed, politically
independent of both corporate parties.

Changed Situation and Attitudes

For the first time nationally, voters in Washington, Minnesota, Maine
and Maryland voted in favor of same-sex marriage rights, marking a
historic turning point in the struggle for LGBT equality. Many other
progressive ballot questions won across the country, from minimum wage
increases to defense of union rights to measures against the racist “war
on drugs.” Minnesota voters narrowly rejected an attempt enshrine the
harshest voter restriction laws in the country into their constitution.
This shows a shift in demographics and a shift in attitudes among young
people and workers. Combined with massive working-class anger, this is
the basis for explosive movements in the next year.

Romney based his strategy largely on a solid white male vote (especially
in the South) and hopes of a (rigged) low voter turnout. The Republican
tactics ever since the 1960s have been to win elections by whipping up
fear and hatred among white voters. This strategy will be more difficult
to be implemented in national elections, a reality that will become even
more clear with coming elections, as the rising generation reaches
voting age. This election defeat will deepen this brewing crisis in the
Republican Party, which will be forced to redefine its identity or face
being reduced into a permanent minority party.

While there wasn’t a big shift in the composition of Congress along
party lines, the changes in the Republican legislators are worth noting.
The “moderate” Maine Republicans and “centrist” Dick Lugar are out of
office as are several of the most crazed Tea Partiers. Despite many Tea
Party defeats, the over-all balance of power within the Republican
congressional delegation has shifted even further right, setting the
stage for more bipartisan gridlock.

Yet in Obama’s victory speech, he repeated his stale pledge to “reach
across the aisle” to the Republicans. In reality, Obama’s bipartisanship
is cynically designed to provide cover for his nakedly pro-corporate
policies, which will soon be on display. Both parties are preparing
historic cuts to Social Security, Medicare, and other vital programs
before the end of 2012. This could provoke radicalization, street
protests and further struggles. In this context, there will be
opportunities to build mass united working-class resistance,
anti-corporate electoral campaigns, and a political party of the 99%.

Building the Socialist Movement in a New Environment

The historic result for Socialist Alternative candidate Kshama Sawant in
Washington State shows the potential to build the movement against
capitalism (see article "Socialist
wins historic 27% against WA House Speaker"). Running openly as
a Socialist, Sawant got more votes than any Republican has ever received
against Frank Chopp in this powerful Democratic politician’s 18-year
career.

Running against budget cuts and corporate tax evasion, and calling for
public ownership of Boeing, Microsoft, and Amazon, Socialist
Alternative’s electoral challenge helped popularize the ideas of
democratic socialism, winning over 11,906 working-class votes which is
projected to grow to over 20,000 votes once counting is finished. This
result is the biggest highlight for local independent left candidates in
2012 and needs to be built upon.

To take advantage of this situation, we need to boldly call for
organized resistance against cuts involving hundreds of thousands of
union members, Occupy activists, community campaigners and young people.
These coalitions will need to prepare for strikes and mass direct action
to defend living standards against the corporate assault. Out of these
struggles, we can lay the basis for what is needed—a mass party of
working people with a democratic socialist program.

In other news outside the two main establishment parties, we saw the
threat of right-wing populism. Gary Johnson, the Libertarian Party
presidential candidate, got over one million votes, three times the
votes won by the most prominent left presidential candidate, Jill Stein
from the Green Party. Like the Tea Party victories in 2010, this
provides a glimpse of the potential for right-wing populist ideas to
grow if the left and workers movement fail to build a mass political
alternative to the hated corporate establishment.

These elections, taking place in the fifth year of a grinding economic
crisis, showed the deepening polarization in U.S. society. At root the
political and social polarization flows from the sharpening class
divide, and the growing desperation of tens of millions of workers.
Lacking a clear working-class political voice in the elections, the
contests between corporate politicians gave distorted expression to the
class anger. In this situation, right-wing ideas could gather support,
and the last four years have seen the rapid growth of hate groups.

On the other side, where a bold lead from the left is given, the class
polarization can also provoke people to consider far-reaching left-wing
solutions. There is a widespread search for ideas that can offer a way
out of the capitalist misery overseen by both parties of big business.
As the Socialist Alternative campaign for Kshama Sawant in Seattle
illustrates, U.S. society is becoming increasingly fertile for the rise
of socialist ideas.